You and your significant other are trying to make a final decision on a night out for dinner and a movie. Both film fans, the discrepancy isn’t over which movie to spend money on. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is what you’ve decided on seeing, but your special someone is willing to fork over more money to see it in 3D, while you have other thoughts.
“I hate 3D,” said Victoria Feliciano, a film enthusiast who deals with disputes like these on a regular basis with her husband, Anthony. “Mainly because it gives me a headache, and unless you have continuous 3D gags, your eyes get adjusted to it after a few minutes, so you can’t even really tell.”
Anthony ultimately wins the dispute after 45 minutes of debating, and the couple spends $35 to see the the latest installment of Transformers in an extra dimension. Though Feliciano describes her husband as a fan of 3D just as long as one scene includes a “3D gag,” she says that after seeing Transformers, he admits to it not being worth the extra cash.
So is the life of some moviegoers, those who are left in a debacle when the more convenient movie time happens to be showing in their least favorite format-` 3D. As production studios have been releasing more and more films in 3D over the past few years, resentment towards these movies has risen.
“I know that in the last, say, six months to maybe even a little longer, there’s been a bit of backlash against the 3D,” said Joe Bardi, Associate Editor and movie critic for the monthly Tampa-based publication, Creative Loafing.
What defines a trend is its tendency to wither away over time. And while it may be too soon to tell, Michael Zeolla, a development executive at Intrepid Pictures, based in Santa Monica, Ca., said that he doesn’t foresee the backlash subsiding anytime soon.
“Backlash of 3D will most likely always be here. It is what it is at this point, and if someone doesn’t like it now, they’re not going to like it a year from now,” Zeolla wrote via e-mail, adding that the people in favor of 3D versus the critics of 3D are probably split down the middle at this point.
Lowell Harris, an adjunct professor in the communication department at the University of Tampa and the faculty advisor for the film and studio association at the University of South Florida, explained that 3D was once a novelty when first introduced to the public in the early 1950s. Now, he said, with 3D being so prevalent not only in theaters but with new television sets and Blu-Rays, the special quality is lost.
“Today, it is a gimmick. It is a way to say, ‘gee, look, we’ve got something new!’ It is not a necessity,” Harris said. “It’s grabbing at something, anything, to get people back into the theaters.”
With admission to some theaters reaching as much as $10 for a regularly formatted film, the additional three or four dollars tagged to the price of a 3D movie may be reason enough for backlash. In a struggling economy, asking audiences to spend extra discretionary income on a film is a tough sell, especially for movies that are released to widely negative reviews; box office numbers, while not conclusive, do support this notion. For instance, recently released and critically scorned 3D films such as Conan the Barbarian and Shark Night 3D opened nationwide to a weak $10 million and $8.4 million, respectively.
And those box office flops are the ones ruining the general perception of 3D’s use in films, according to Harris.
“Remember Gresham’s Law—bad money always drives out the good money—and it’s the same here,” he explained. “The bad films often will affect [the good films] because they’re taking space in the theater.”
However, it’s not as if summer blockbusters and critically acclaimed films aren’t taking part in the 3D surge. Movies like Thor and 2010 Academy Award Winner Alice in Wonderland include 3D as well. Though credited as excellent films, some audience members may not be able to see past the negative 3D moniker. Feliciano, for one, appreciates the filmmaking process of a movie like Thor, but feels cheated when she pays extra to see it in 3D and leaves the theater unsatisfied.
“I think that real film directors might put one or two 3D gags, but for the most part, they’re just making a movie” she said. “I basically paid [more for] the price of a ticket to see a 3D movie with nothing special in it.”
There are a variety of perspectives and angles to view the backlash, and yet average moviegoers aren’t the only ones involved. Film critics are also among those who are strongly against 3D. The way critics review movies has been altered, as now the added dimension means adding an aspect to their critique.
Arguably the most well-known movie critic in America, Roger Ebert is first in line to express his resentment for 3D’s role in film. In an article written for Newsweek titled “Why I hate 3-D”, Ebert lists and explains nine reasons why audience members should join him in his hatred, among them, “it adds nothing to the experience” and, “it can be a distraction.”
In addition, the lack of brightness in 3D films has posed a problem. While 3D movies are marketed as such, many are actually not filmed in 3D, but rather in 2D—then converted in postproduction for the big screen. This often causes the picture to be dark and of lesser quality. Bardi explained that this lower quality image affects films shown in both 3D and 2D.
“Theater owners are turning down the bulbs on their 3D projectors and then leaving them down for 2D movies, which means that not only are the 3D movies projecting dark, but the 2D movies are now projecting dark as well, so it’s kind of ruining everything.”
Personally, Bardi said he dislikes the 3D unless it is being used with the intention of improving the filmmaking. Harris doesn’t happen to care for 3D either when he goes to the theater. He feels it’s unnecessary altogether.
All the same, Zeolla believes that while the backlash may never subside, critics will have to adjust to 3D. He acknowledged that the resentment comes from varying reasons—among them, inflated prices and the realization that it’s being used as a gimmick—but says as a fan of horror films, he happens to enjoy the use of 3D.
“As a moviegoer, I personally enjoy 3D films for the visual aspect of it,” he said. “I’m also an avid horror movie fan, and any film where blood and guts are being thrown at me in 3D is right up my alley.”
Personal opinions aside, the reality is that a 3D film can be seen in theaters on a weekly basis. Backlash or not, there is no end to 3D in sight—especially with the sequel of Avatar, the world’s all-time leader in box office gross (close to $3 billion) and a movie which heavily relied on 3D for its success, set to be released in 2014.
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